Isla de Coco from Pacific Tea just conjures images of tropical islands, palm trees, and coconuts. While there is coconut in this blend, it’s not the pina-colada herbal tea you might expect!
Isla de Coco has an unusual mix of spices, with chai flavors like ginger, cardamom, and clove, as well as more dessert-like flavors like cocoa shells, cocoa beans, and licorice root. The result is an amazing, sweet and savory, cookie-flavored blend.
The cocoa shells are surprisingly nutty, almost salty like the sweet-and-salty mix of caramel corn. These flavors pair especially well with the buttery coconut pieces. As for the other spices, there is a little heat from the ginger on the back of each sip, and the licorice and cloves add their own herbal sweetness and silky mouthfeel.
Despite all the cocoa shells and cocoa beans, this blend is not dominated by chocolate. There is just a hint of cocoa powder, mainly adding to the warming, bakery notes of the overall blend. In fact, vanilla almost ends up being the strongest flavor, between the creamy coconut and smooth vanilla bean. No milk or whipped cream needed to get that smooth vanilla taste (though, you can’t really go wrong with adding whipped cream to a tea latte).
This is a great blend when you’re tired of the usual chai, but still want a fun herbal tea with a variety of herbs and spices. Not to mention it has a much-need hint of chocolate to reward yourself on those especially long days.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Pacific Tea
Description: Live life a little less ordinary with a grounding melody of coco-cocoa, vanilla perfection. This caffeine-free herbal blend entices with ‘natural-sugar, spice and everything nice’.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Coconut Chai Tea from Zhena’s Gypsy Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zhena’s Gypsy Tea
Tea Description:
A robust and full flavored black tea accented with exotic imperial spices. The bold concentrated character of this lush black tea lends itself well to the full notes of cardamom, ginger and clove. The sweet hint of tropical coconut fragrantly fills the cup, offering an inviting taste of paradise to savor from any spot on the map. Delicious with a splash of milk. A bright and flavorful steep. Sunglasses not included.
Fair Trade Certified Indian Black Tea*, Cinnamon*, Ginger*, Cardamom Pods*, Whole Cloves*, Orange Peels*, Nutmeg*, Black Pepper*, Natural Coconut Flavor, Natural Cinnamon Flavor.
* Certified Organic
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I really have to be in the mood for a chai. Coconut Chai Tea from Zhena’s Gypsy Tea was really calling to me today. Sent to me from a Steepster.com friend, and I am happy for it, I am sipping a yummy chai with a nice hint at coconut, and a slight taste of vanilla. No vanilla is listed in the ingredients but I taste it nonetheless. Must be how the coconut gives the tea a light milky and nutty flavor combined with the typical spices in chai. Regardless, I am really enjoying this chai from Zhena’s.
Somehow I have managed to drink loose leaf for over a year now and had yet to have tried Zhena’s Teas. This is an excellent first introduction to this company.
I will say if you are expecting a really coconutty tea, this isn’t it. Honestly I would not mind a bit more coconut flavor myself, but I am satisfied with it being lightly flavored.
I had the first half of my cup straight, then added a little vanilla almond milk to the rest. It was excellent both ways but I think I prefer it straight which is interesting because most of my experience with chai has always been the tea mixed with milk of some kind.
I look forward to trying more of the teas offered by Zhena’s Gypsy Tea.
Toasta Rica from Mad Pots of Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong, Black, Yerba Mate & Rooibos
Where to Buy: Mad Pots of Tea
Tea Description:
Rainforest, Autumn, Rich spice scents, Costa Rica, Full-Bodied, Meditative Toasty, Aromatic, Fruity, Spicy, Exotic, Intense, Earth Tones.
Learn more about getting a tea designed according to your PersonaliTEA here.
Taster’s Description:
This Toasta Rica from Mad Pots of Tea is a PersonaliTEA that was created for my SororiTea Sister, Azzrian! And it is really delicious. I love that I’m tasting all the components here … with the exception of the Stevia … of which I taste very little! Perfect!
As I sit here and sip and peruse the words of inspiration list (which I’ve included as the “Tea Description” above), I realize that this tea really does fit every single one of these words to a TEA! This tea evokes thoughts of the rainforest with its earthy notes and warm, woodsy tones. The spices speak of autumn to me. It is indeed a meditative, toasty, aromatic, fruity, spicy, exotic, intense, Earthy, full-bodied blend of flavors!
I love that I’m tasting the ginger, the allspice, the coriander and the cardamom. I taste a warm, peppery taste to this cup. There are notes of fruit that taste as though they have been baked in spices … like a baked apple that has been liberally spiced. It is toasty and warm … and definitely exotic.
But the best part of this tea for me is the Sarsaparilla. I love it! It adds just a hint of root beer-ish flavor to the cup … and the spices and sweetness of this cup seem to enhance the root-beer-y taste … like one of those gourmet root beers you might pick up in one of the expensive grocery stores.
If you haven’t yet filled out your own PersonaliTEA questionnaire to order your own custom tea … what are you waiting for? It’s fun … and it really is a delight to receive a package from Mrs. Potts! I need to be reordering my own Personalized blend (Anne’s Creative Cup!) because I’ve been out of it for a while now and I miss it!
Swedish Delight from sTEAp Shoppe
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: sTEAp Shoppe
Tea Description:
High grown Organic Ceylon Flowery Orange Pekoe Black tea with Swedish delights like organic wild Lingonberry, Cardamon and Orange make for a full flavored unique black tea. First you are taken with the aroma of Cardamon then the flavors of Lingonberry and a full flavored robust Ceylon black tea with just a touch of orange citrus. The flavor of Lingonberry lingers on the tongue for a spectacular finish.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Wow! This flavored black Ceylon tea is quite unlike any other that I’ve tried. It is – indeed – truly unique.
The cardamom and the orange notes work very harmoniously together, but I don’t think that these two ingredients is what makes this blend so unique. There are quite a few orange spice blends out there. What makes this stand out is the lingonberry.
Lingonberry is a fruit that I have very limited experience with, and most of that experience is limited to my visits to IKEA. They have a cafeteria there, and when we shop there and start to feel hungry, we often visit the cafeteria. The food is decent and the prices are good. I usually order the meatballs that are served with a bit of lingonberry sauce on the side, and for a drink, I usually choose the lingonberry soda. So… yeah, like I said, my experience with lingonberry is pretty isolated … I think I may have tried one other tea with lingonberry in it.
And I am LOVING the lingonberry in this blend. From what I understand, the raw lingonberry is quite tart, but I’m not finding this blend isn’t overwhelmingly tart. It does definitely have a tarty tingle to it toward the tail, and a sweet-tart kind of flavor throughout. The cardamom adds a hint of warmth to the cup – just a touch of spice that offers a nice contrast to the overall flavor.
These three ingredients – orange, cardamom and lingonberry – present themselves in a really stunning way that is smooth yet pleasantly tart and sweet. This delivery is facilitated, no doubt, by the black tea base. The organic black tea used in this blend is a Ceylon and I think that this was a perfect choice for this particular blend. The Ceylon is smooth and medium-bodied and manages to make itself part of the overall flavor of the blend without disrupting the unique combination of lingonberry, orange and cardamom.
This blend is a real winner. It has some comforting similarities to a autumnal/winter-y orange spice blend but with the added flavor of lingonberry it becomes really quite unique. This would make a great alternative to the usual holiday blend!
Toasta Rica from Mad Pots of Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong, Mate, Ceylon, Rooibos Blend
Where to Buy: Mad Pots of Tea
Tea Description:
If You Were a Tea, What Would You Taste Like?
I’m sure this is a question you find yourself pondering almost daily…. If you want your own Custom Blend or “PersonaliTEA” Make My Blend!
Taster’s Review:
Mad Pots of Tea has a few select blends for sale on their site, but what is more important is that they make your custom blend for you based on a short but interesting survey that you take prior to their master blender Madam Potts taking over and mixing up your specialized tea!
It is all based on your likes, personality, and a answers to the survey. Its as if she profiles you!
My blend is called Toasta Rica because I love Costa Rica, and I like toasty teas. My tea came in a nice resealable brown paper bag which I believe is from recycled paper (love it) and a lovely card personalized by Madam Potts which reads:
Words of Inspiration from your form:
Rainforest, Autumn, Rich spice scents, Costa Rica, Full-Bodied, Mediative, Toasty, Aromatic, Fruity, Spicy, Exotic, Intense, Earth Tones.
Which basically means keywords I had put into the questionnaire I filled out when I began my journey on her site.
Also there is a note that my blend has never been created and will never be created for anyone else! It is a unique tea – just like me.
Of course I have big cheesy smiles all around now!
The ingredients of my blend include: Imperial Oolong, Mango Ceylon, Yerba Mate, Rooibos, Ginger Root, Sarsaparilla, Damiana, Allspice, Coriander, Cardamon, and Stevia.
I do love a good chai and this tea has a true chai flavor to it but one thing I notice when sipping this tea is a wonderful black pepper note that just dances on the tip of my tongue – I LOVE black pepper! It is a sweet tea that has just the right amount of fruit notes to it without being too fruity and cutting through the intense tones of what I call my renaissance tea!
While you can’t get my exact blend, of course without asking me for it, I just want to say how in love I am with my tea blend from Mad Pots of Tea and I want to encourage any tea lover to give her method of finding the perfect blend for you a try!
Turn around on your blend is not fast. I waited five weeks from the time of order to receiving it but I am fine with that as it seems there was time allowed for the flavors to meld and the true beauty of this tea to develop.
I am thrilled with my blend even though my head was not thinking chai-esque the fact is chai is one of my first tea loves! Not only is this a chai tea but an extremely excellent chai at that! I have several chai teas from many companies here but this one is supreme!
Somehow Madame Pots hit the nail on the head with this blend not forgetting I needed something a tad bit fruity to break the monotony of the chai spices! I love that oolong was used as a base, I am an oolong lover through and though but I also love that some mate was added as I always need to get my energy flowing! I do not feel that any of these flavor components, although there are many strong elements in this tea, take over. Each flavor is getting its time in the Toasta Rica sun! Oh yeah!
Thank you Madame Potts!
